Defenders of the law find themselves defenceless

Joel Gibson, Deborah Snow, Geesche Jacobsen and Elisabeth Sexton

SENIOR judges in NSW have discussed appointing someone to fight attacks by the media and politicians because a tradition of attorneys-general defending the courts is breaking down.

Similar talks are occurring around the country, with the Chief Justice of Victoria, Marilyn Warren, proposing a public defender of judges for that state.

The plan has not gone as far in NSW because of a better relationship with the government and uncertainty over the best person for the role.

Justice Peter McClellan, the Chief Judge at Common Law in the NSW Supreme Court, said it was inappropriate for judges to engage in public debate about their decisions but the tradition of attorneys-general doing so on their behalf was ''breaking down''.

Related Content

Attorneys-general in NSW still defended the judiciary ''from time to time and about particular issues,'' he said, but there had been discussions about whether ''the judges through a spokesperson or perhaps through a chief justice should take a more active role in defending the judiciary''.

The talks began when then federal attorney-general Daryl Williams said he would not defend judges but the present NSW and federal attorneys-general, John Hatzistergos and Robert McClelland, have taken a less hard line.

Advertisement

''If there is another attorney who announces that he or she is not going to do this, then something might have to be put in place,'' said the Chief Justice of NSW, Jim Spigelman.

The Chief Judge of the District Court, Reg Blanch, said he had asked attorneys-general to stop ''lending support to the attack rather than standing up to it'' but would not say who they were.

''I think attorneys these days are trying to tread a line down the middle. They're wanting to curry favour with the media on the one hand and not get the bench offside on the other hand,'' he said.

Justice Megan Latham said: ''Even if they want to come out and defend the integrity of the judiciary, I think sometimes the parliamentary process makes it difficult for them to do that.''

In the latest high-profile case, Mr Hatzistergos spoke off air to the radio broadcaster Ray Hadley this week after he criticised a sentence. After Korey Russell, a father of two, died in a crash last year, Scott Townsend was sentenced to 300 hours of community service and a 12-month licence suspension for dangerous driving causing death.

Mr Russell's widow, Deanne, questioned the judge's findings that Townsend was entitled to the full discount for pleading guilty, was remorseful and was not speeding. Yesterday, Hadley said the judge might have been misled by prosecutors.

But a spokeswoman for the Director of Public Prosecutions defended the decision, saying the crash was due to ''momentary inattentiveness'' and without Townsend's guilty plea there might have been insufficient evidence to convict him.

Mr Hatzistergos's office said it was seeking further information from the DPP.